Huawei, GIK join hands to launch first undergraduate Degree program in Pakistan

Islamabad: Through the medium of a remote virtual event, Huawei Pakistan and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIK) formalized their Industry-academia partnership. Both parties took part in an official signing ceremony, with the event solidifying the creation of a four year BS degree in Artificial Intelligence partnered by Huawei.

The program is the first such partnership and serves as a milestone in an already successful four-year-long partnership that started with the establishment of the Huawei ICT Academy at GIK in 2016.

GIK is known throughout the country as a prestigious institution for studies in engineering, and Huawei Technologies leads the world in the ICT industry. In the nature of this collaboration, GIK, with Huawei’s support, has designed the curriculum, theory, and lab courses. GIK will be authorized to use Huawei AI learning resources under the qualified instructors who will be enabled through the ‘Train the Trainer’ program.

Through this process, it is planned that the students will learn theory, gain practical experience with a global outlook, have their Huawei career certifications, and be granted ample job opportunities.

The event was attended by leading figures within both Huawei and GIK like Mr. Farid Rahman, President GIK Board of Governors and SOPREST, Mr. Jehangir Bashar, Rector GIK, Mr. Shakil Durrani, Executive Director, SOPREST, Mr. Mark Meng, CEO Huawei Pakistan and Mr. SpaceLee, VP Huawei Middle East, along with other esteemed members from both sides.

Mr. Farid Rehman, President, GIK Board of Governors and SOPREST, remarked that “this partnership provides the next and higher level of collaboration, which he hopes will strengthen the mutual cooperation in the field of AI between the two organizations.”

Continuing the sentiment, Mr. Mark Meng, CEO Huawei Pakistan shared his thoughts, mentioning that Huawei will “share the best AI knowledge with GIK” and that “students will have the opportunity to be linked to the industry. Huawei & GIK have joined hands to make this initiative run successfully.”

Mr. Shakil Durrani, Executive Director SOPREST, also commended the efforts of GIK and collaboration by Huawei that will go a long way in the creation of high tech human resources in Pakistan. Through this agreement, both the organizations aim to benefit from their strengths and share their expertise in the field of a modern discipline of Artificial Intelligence.

Mr. Jehangir Bashar, Rector GIK, shared his optimistic remarks about the program, stating that “Huawei has always been one of the top ICT companies in the world, GIK is recognized internationally, it would be a good fit, and thus we have the GIK BS in AI-Partnered by Huawei.”

VP of the Huawei Middle East, Mr. SpaceLee, said that “AI can be used to improve all major industries, bringing forth the new future. AI, 5G & Cloud will reconstruct the world. GIK is a pioneer to be partnered with Huawei on such industry-academia cooperation for AI.”

The online event was broadcasted live at noon on the social media channels of both Huawei Pakistan and GIK, reaching more than 25,000 people across both platforms.

The partnership was established in December of 2019 when both parties signed an MoU to launch a pilot undergraduate degree program for Artificial Intelligence in Pakistan. Huawei will be sharing its AI research and achievements with the faculty and students of GIK for them to benefit from the latest technologies to improve the value of academic education.

With the success of the degree program in Artificial Intelligence, Huawei and GIK look forward to future cooperation in the fields of intelligent computing and cloud computing and so on. Through such programs, Huawei and GIK institute shall support the regional information and communication technology education, share knowledge, and create more opportunities.